The Johnson County Detention Center is a county-owned and -operated jail in Cleburne, Texas. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sends ICE detainees there pursuant to an intergovernmental service agreement (IGSA) with the county. The detention facility is unique because a large proportion of the immigrant detainees there have been deported once before. Accordingly, ICE “reinstates” their previous removal orders. However, many others inmates are in ICE custody for the first time.

Contact Information

Contacting the Facility

Contacting A Detainee

To speak to a detainee by phone, call Johnson County Detention Facility’s main desk at (817)645-2918. Although the facility will not connect you directly to him, it will leave a message for the person to call you back. When an inmate is first booked at the facility, he or she will be provided up to two free phone calls. After that, when the detainee makes a call, the person receiving the call will be prompted to pay for the call using a credit or debit card.

Staff at Johnson County advise not to pay for these collect calls because they are expensive and they don’t work when the call is to a mobile phone and not a landline. Instead, persons who wish to receive calls should send money to the detainee to purchase phone cards from within the facility.

To deposit money in a detainee’s “commissary account,”send a money order from either a bank or the U.S. Post Office to the facility’s address. (The maximum amount that can be deposited is $300.) Once the jail deposits this money in the inmate’s account, he or she can use this money to buy snacks, phone cards, stationary, and extra clothing in case it gets cold.

To visit the a person at the immigration detention facility in Johnson County, go the facility between 8 am and 10:30am on Saturday or Sunday.

Contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

While there are sometimes ICE deportation officers working at the facility in Johnson County, detainees’ case files are usually held at the Enforcement and Removal Operations regional office in Dallas, Texas. There, one of three or four deportation officers will be assigned to each Johnson County inmate’s case. To contact an officer in Dallas, call (214)424-7811. The regional office is located at 8101 North Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, Texas 75247. The head officer in Dallas is the Field Office Director Nuria T. Prendes, and below her is Assistant Field Office Director Reed Little.

Getting Released

Immigration Bonds

Many immigrant detainees in Johnson County will not be eligible for release on bond, especially if they have been deported once before. However, many are eligible, and it is worth it to find out. A bond amount can be set either by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or an immigration judge. To find out if ICE has set a bond amount for a detainee, call the regional field office in Dallas, Texas at (214)424-7811, and speak to the deportation officer assigned to the detainee’s case. Note: ICE officers will often refuse to speak directly to a detainee or his family members. Accordingly, it is advised to have an attorney communicate with ICE. Even if ICE refuses to release a person on bond, he or she can request a bond hearing before an immigration judge.

Immigration bonds can be posted at any ICE ERO Field Office in the United States. However, persons detained in Johnson County will be released faster if the bond is posted at the Dallas ERO Field Office:

8101 North Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, Texas 75247

The Bond Unit at the Dallas Field Office, can be reached at (214)424-7866.

Post-Release

Unlike at other facilities, inmates released from Johnson County Detention Center will not be dropped off at a nearby airport or bus station. Instead, a family member or friend is required to pick up the person directly from the facility.

The Removal Process

Immigration detainees in Johnson County are typically charged with removability from the United States, shortly after they are placed in ICE custody. Many have the opportunity to make a case for why they should not be deported. If so, their cases are heard before the Dallas Immigration Court.

Immigration Court

Because Cleburne, Texas is located 2 hours from Dallas, cases there are heard via televideo. In recent months, Judge Deitrich H. Sims has been assigned to hear cases out of Johnson County. Judge Sims became an immigration judge in March of 1997, and began his service in Miami, Florida. In asylum cases, Judge Sims’s denial rate over the past 5 years (83.8%) is far above the national average.

Timeframe

Currently, it can take between 2-3 weeks for a person to see an immigration judge, from the time that he or she is detained. In fiscal year 2011, it took an average of 23 days for a case at Rolling Plains Detention Center to be completed.

Facility Background

The Johnson County Detention Facility was built in 1988 and last remodeled in 2006. It serves as a local jail facility as well as an ICE-contract immigration detention center. The facility has bed space for roughly 750 inmates. In 2008, the facility took in over 9,420 inmates.

Nearby Facilities

If you are having difficulty locating someone at the Johnson County Detention Center, you may want to try contacting any the following immigration detention centers: